A wealthy woman from Manhattan's Upper East Side struggles to deal with her new identity and her sexuality after her husband of 16 years leaves her for a younger woman.A wealthy woman from Manhattan's Upper East Side struggles to deal with her new identity and her sexuality after her husband of 16 years leaves her for a younger woman.A wealthy woman from Manhattan's Upper East Side struggles to deal with her new identity and her sexuality after her husband of 16 years leaves her for a younger woman.
- Nominated for 3 Oscars
- 6 wins & 18 nominations total
- Sue
- (as Pat Quinn)
- Cabbie
- (as Chico Martinez)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaDr. Penelope Russianoff, who plays Erica (Jill Clayburgh)'s therapist Tanya, was an actual practicing psychologist. The counseling sessions were filmed in her actual penthouse apartment on West 86th Street in New York, where she saw her patients. She worked for two and a half days and was paid US $2500. She was cast after having been recommended to director Paul Mazursky by "Girlfriends" (1978) director Claudia Weill. Russianoff said that she improvised most of her dialogue, which was based on the type of therapy she gave her patients. After the movie was launched, Russianoff became a mini-celebrity. She said the role gave her "instant celebrity-hood," being recognized on the streets of New York, where she signed autographs, and got a number of new clients. She wrote several self-help books in the 1980s, including "Why Do I Think I Am Nothing Without a Man?" (1988), a book first published about a decade after this film, but with a title and subject matter that were reflective of this picture.
- GoofsThe boom is clearly visible for several seconds during the art gallery scene.
- Quotes
[first lines]
[Martin and Erica are jogging along the river]
Martin: Jesus Christ! Look at this! My sneaker's ruined!
Erica: They're only $35.
[Erica takes Martin's shoe and cleans it off for him]
Martin: Fucking city's turning into one big pile of DOG SHIT!
[shouting at passing traffic]
Martin: Come on out and take a crap on me--everybody else is. Fuck!
[Martin lights a cigarette]
Erica: ...been jogging for 2 1/2 miles - you're giving yourself lung cancer.
Martin: I'll tell you something, Erica: the longer I'm married to you, the more you sound like my mother.
Erica: Clean your own sneaker.
[throws shoe at Martin]
Martin: I think you wanted me to step in it.
Erica: [laughing] You're going crazy, Martin.
Martin: I am?
Erica: [laughing] Yes.
[Martin tosses his shoe over his shoulder into the river. Erica jogs away, and Martin jogs after]
- Crazy creditsFor Betsy
- SoundtracksSwan Lake, Op.20
(1877) (uncredited)
Written by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Excerpts danced by Jill Clayburgh
This one was more serious, and he did a good job with it. Jill Clayburgh was an excellent, popular actress of those days. She had a fine supporting cast.
I wanted to comment here, specifically to address the reviewers who say they couldn't relate to this woman emotionally because she was well off and not living in a depressed neighborhood and didn't have three little kids to take care of and no income, etc. These comments made absolutely no sense to me.
It's not this film's fault the economy of the US has deteriorated since it was made. Yes, even at the time, this was an upper middle class New York woman who had no money worries, and therefore she didn't share a lot with the average woman of 1978. But in 1978, many families were still living on one income. Public college was affordable, food and gas, even rent, were affordable. People didn't travel a lot, and many families had one car. People didn't use credit cards very much. The New York subway cost 50 cents.
Why this film had more resonance in 1978 is that divorce was less prevalent then than now. Women were not in the workforce as much. It may seem hard to believe but I remember just a few years before this, women were not allowed to wear pants in some restaurants and hotels. Many universities were not even co-ed.
So here's a woman facing divorce in this very different time, when many women relied on their husbands, and more than that, relied psychologically on the central thing in their lives, home and marriage. I think it was smart of Mazursky to focus on a woman of means, so that the economic issues would not be front-and-center. Instead, this is a woman whose main crisis is the divorce itself, the rejection, the loneliness, the sexual needs, the need to find oneself and rely on oneself. It works particularly because this was a woman who never really had to rely on herself, before.
It was a very different time and people may find it hard to relate to that time, but it's still a well-made, well-acted film.
- jhkp
- Jan 5, 2019
- How long is An Unmarried Woman?Powered by Alexa
Details
Box office
- Gross US & Canada
- $24,000,000